Life has been pretty uneventful lately. The most recent development is that I am trying to start a Graphic Design business on the side. I just really enjoy drawing and being creative. I have gotten a lot over the last 18 years as a drafter/designer, but I’m just extremely bored with it. Most of that time has been in the steel stud industry. I could just about tell you all you need to know about gauge of steel, galvanization, and c-studs. Sounds interesting don’t it? I spend most of my day talking to people about how long a 3-5/8”, 20 gauge stud, will span in an interior, non-load bearing condition, where the lateral load is 5 psf, with a deflection of L/240. In case you care it is 15’-9” at 16” O.C. It’s not much to go home to tell the wife about.

So a few months ago I took some graphic design courses. I enjoy combining my creative side with my knowledge of technology. Over time I have been working on ways to promote myself to gain a few side jobs. The image above was a character design I did for someone’s web site www.shipfinn.com. (I don’t think he has it up to date yet) It is about a kid’s story of moving place to place, I had to go through 3 or 4 different drawings to get him right. The guy kept on saying he wanted him to look like his 9 year old son only in a cartoon style. The first one I drew he said he looked too much like a teenager. His very words were “The drawing looks more like it is of an 11-12 year old boy, my boy is only 9 can you make him look younger.” That was a challenge to take 3 years off of cartoon character, but I achieved it by making him a little smaller. Point is I enjoyed doing it.

I am currently trying to get a bid to design T-shirts for a dog training school. They specialize in dog sports like; agility, dock diving, and sheep herding. So I sketched up some quick drawings shown below. I call them “The Judges are Full of Sheep.” I’m hoping to hear something back next week.

 
I like the fact that I am able to go from drawing a little boy in a back of a truck to dogs dancing, it keeps life very interesting. So if you know someone who needs some graphics done, I have a web site I am working on http://www.jason-miller-design.com/. If you need to know something about steel studs, go away or I’ll find one and knock you in the head with it! …. Just kidding.